The Snoke Question Nobody is Asking About 'The Last Jedi'

Supreme Leader Snoke and the First Order have finally grasped the power they’ve been chasing for the past 30 years in the Star Wars universe. But the real question everyone should be asking is how did the New Republic let it get to this point?

A recent report from popular Star Wars fan site Making Star Wars points out that “the state of the galaxy” is one of all-out chaos following the events of The Force Awakens. Well, duh. The real question here is: Why? Why did the Republic allow Snoke and his First Order to fly under the radar, ignored, for so long in the first place?

Snoke will, reportedly, be out in the open in The Last Jedi. The First Order will no longer operate in the shadows, the New Republic will be in shambles after the destruction of its capital, and worlds are going to have to start picking sides.

The warnings that Senator Leia Organa had been delivering to the Galactic Senate as she led the Resistance against Snoke’s First Order will finally come to fruition in The Last Jedi. It’s as she feared: A great, oppressive power has once again gained traction in the galaxy.

Because a Galactic Senate that didn't listen to warnings of impending terror worked out so well last time.

The Last Jedi will supposedly introduce the First Order as a very real threat to the galaxy, much to the surprise of the Star Wars galaxy’s diplomats and not at all surprising to long-time Star Wars fans. Clearly, 30 years of peace is just long enough to encourage enough apathy for people to basically hand power over to a pseudo-Empire.

It’s not like the Star Wars galaxy hadn’t seen an impending evil grow to power right under its nose before — the Clone Wars, Palpatine, and the fall of the Jedi Order, anyone? If the New Republic was willing to ignore the fall of the legendary Luke Skywalker’s new Jedi Order and storied war hero Senator Leia Organa’s warnings about Snoke’s First Order, then its downfall was kind of its own damn fault. Like, come on, people.

Obviously, J.J. Abrams and the gang had to build suspense and tell a “resistance” story in a slightly different way than ever before. It’s solid storytelling, but much like with the prequel trilogy, the bad guys once again came to power after inciting small-scale chaos until they could really unveil something nasty, like the destruction of Hosnian Prime, the capital world of the Republic, towards the end of The Force Awakens.

What was the New Republic’s reasoning for why Luke’s new Jedi Order fell? Why did it feel the need to ignore Leia’s warnings? How did such a large-scale evil sit under its nose for so long? It’s not like Starkiller Base was subtle. It’s not like the First Order wasn’t galavanting around with its stormtroopers and its Dark side attack dog, Kylo Ren, killing people and inciting both fear and violence. These are all troubling questions that The Last Jedi will have to answer, which means audiences should probably expect some complicated diplomacy scenes in the near future.